LAS CRUCES >> Popular Science magazine has ranked three New Mexico spots on its among its Top 25 "Best Nerd Road Trips" in the United States.In the August edition of the magazine, The Chile Pepper Institute in Las Cruces, the Very Large Array near Socorro and Spaceport America all made the list.

The article based its top 25 list on how "curious, mysterious, or otherwise beguiling the destination was to satisfy a person's inner science-history geek." The two writers, Geoff Manaugh and Nicola Twilley, toured a total of 150 sites in the U.S. then narrowed their favorite to 25.